The invention relates to a guideway carrier with a sliding surface for magnetic levitation railways, the vehicles of which are at least provided with one sliding skate each for setting-down on said sliding surface, and a magnetic levitation railway fabricated therewith.
The guideways of magnetic levitation railways are composed of guideway carriers that are also provided with so-called sliding surfaces, apart from the driving means frequently configured as stator packs of long-stator linear motors and apart from lateral guidance surfaces destined for tracking. In the majority of applications, these sliding surfaces are installed on the upper surface of guideway carriers and both in normal stopping and in cases of emergency they serve for setting-down the vehicles by the aid of sliding skates mounted at their undersides. The designations “sliding” surface and “sliding” skate are meant to express that the sliding skates can be set-down on the sliding surfaces not only during a standstill but also during the ride of vehicles and can be moved on them in sliding mode until the vehicle comes to standstill. For example, such a situation may occur in case of a failure of a support magnet, because in this case a pertinent section of the vehicle and/or of its levitation frame sinks down so far that the vehicle sets-down at least with one sliding skate on the sliding surface. As a result hereof, and in view of the high speeds achievable with magnetically levitated vehicles reaching 400 km/h and more, substantial friction energies are induced that entail high temperatures and intensive wear and tear in the area of sliding partners concerned.
To date little attention has been paid to friction conditions occurring in case of emergency setting-downs. The sliding properties rather resulted more or less by mere accident from the materials used for sliding skates and sliding surfaces. It was taken for granted that the sliding surfaces, like the guideway girders, were made of steel or concrete, and that sliding skates would have to be made of a material that compared with steel or concrete is distinguished by a high abrasion resistance. It is also known as prior art in this context to configure the sliding surfaces at sliding ledges made of steel and to provide them with corrosion protection coatings made of zinc dust and micaceous iron ore based on epoxy resin and/or polyurethane.
In practical operation of magnetic levitation railways of the type described hereunder, it became evident that the sliding properties obtained in this manner are insufficient for various reasons. It may particularly be desired not to perform a repair or maintenance of defective vehicles immediately or anywhere alongside the guideway whenever a defect occurs but to let defective vehicles ride on, if possible, until they reach a shop suitable for performing such repair and maintenance work. However, in these cases the high friction forces occurring on a failure of support magnets between prior art sliding skates and sliding surfaces would cause high mechanical strains and temperatures so that safely reaching the nearest repair shop without premature complete wear of sliding skates and/or sliding surfaces could only be assured by locating such repair shops alongside the guideway at comparatively short distance. If the distance between such repair shops is too large, many defects affecting the vehicles would also cause damage to the sliding surfaces and, therefore, call for a repair to affected sliding surfaces and even to the complete guideway, which would entail substantial cost of operation and which must be avoided.